I'm reminded of the time a woman came into the veterinary hospital I was working for (this was before I'd graduated from veterinary school - I was working as an assistant) with her dog, which she was dropping off to be spayed. I was called up to take the dog to the back. When I approached the woman, she said "now, I just want to make sure that no Jewish doctors will be taking care of Fluffy." I was taken aback, being Jewish myself (not to mention, you know, being sane and civilized), but I calmly replied "well, you made an appointment here for Fluffy to get spayed by Dr. VeryJewishName. He is, in fact, Jewish, as am I. Is that a problem?" She grabbed the dog back from me and said "it most certainly is!" and then stormed over to the front desk and said "You're going to need to give Fluffy a free bath - that Jewish girl got her all dirty." I just looked at the receptionist, she looked at me, we cracked up, and told her to GTFO or we would call the police.

How can an anti-semite not recognize a very Jewish name? When it's obvious....it's obvious. Though maybe not if one is living in a low Jewish population area... Still mind boggling.

I guess Fluffy-Lover-Jew-Hater doesn't live on Long Island...where I grew up. Jewish doctors are hard to avoid, or teachers, or neighbors...or police. Hack, the dogs are probably Jewish too, being bred from a Jewish breeder-mom.

Wow - shocked at the anti-Semite story. I had a patient who wanted to know if we were Christian. I told her we have an Indian Hindu doctor and a Chinese Buddhist doctor and if you aren't comfortable with my colleagues then you shouldn't see me either and, by the way, I thought Jesus told you to love everyone. She was chagrined enough by the last comment that she apologized, stayed, and never mentioned it again.

As for the political stuff, I haven't had any issues with a patient but I did with a drug rep once. Suffice it to say he didn't call on our office again.

Welcome to my whining!

This blog is entirely for entertainment purposes. All posts about patients may be fictional, or be my experience, or were submitted by a reader, or any combination of the above. Factual statements may or may not be accurate.

Singing Foo!

Have Dr. Grumpy delivered automatically to your Kindle for only 99 cents a month! Sign up here!

Dr. Grumpy is for hire! Need an article written (humorous, medical, or otherwise) or want to commission a genuine Grumpy piece for your newspaper/magazine/toilet paper roll? Contact me to discuss subjects. You can reach me at the email address below, or through my Linked-In profile.

Note: I do not answer medical questions. If you are having a medical issue, see your own doctor. For all you know I'm really a Mongolian yak herder and have no medical training at all except in issues regarding the care and feeding of Mongolian yaks.